How to Talk About Your Goals in English Basic English Phrases
Happy New Year welcome back to our
weekly live stream my name is Alicia and
in this week’s live stream we are going
to talk about explaining your goals
explaining your goals will be the theme
for this week’s live lesson I thought
this it would be a nice topic to start a
new year so today I’m going to talk
about goal-setting some key words for
setting your goals I’m going to talk
about basic patterns you can use to
explain your goals and I’m going to talk
about some detailed explanations that
you can give to talk more completely
about your goals so I think we’re going
to start in just a moment please send a
message in the chat when you see us I
see YouTube hi youtube hello Ronnie and
Filipe hi everyone I see you all
Facebook is up as well hello Facebook hi
darish sorry if I said that wrong
Anderson and some zyi Juan Carlos hello
Jorge on YouTube I’m doing well how are
you all happy New Year to everybody
again I hope you enjoyed a happy and
safe New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
it was fun for me I had a great time I
hope you had a nice time too and I said
today we’re gonna talk about explaining
your goals so maybe a good one if you
have some New Year’s resolutions so I
want to just give a quick I guess New
Year’s welcome a New Year’s hello I
shared this on yeah we’ll see a second I
shared this on Instagram last week but
this was in this room here we were
making some like Q&A videos last week so
this was our end-of-the-year picture but
I thought it would be nice to share this
as like our start of the year hello to
everybody so we’re back in this room
today making today’s livestream so thank
you as always for watching us and for
participating in everything we do we’re
very excited too
more stuff like this in here this year
too so thank you so so much for watching
last year and this year as well alright
we’re about three minutes in so I’m
going to start today’s topic by talking
about setting your goal setting your
goals so if you have watched the YouTube
channel recently I don’t think it’s on
Facebook yet but if you have seen the
YouTube channel recently maybe you have
seen there’s a new video up about
learning so I think the title of the
video is like learning hacks but we
talked about this thing I’m going to
discuss right here this goal setting
thing so how to make goals that are like
what are called SMART goals so I’m going
to talk about this first today but first
I am going to share the video on
Facebook so that other people can find
it so I hope that you do too
I’m going to share it and then I’m going
to begin the lesson okay so as you join
please don’t forget to send a message in
the chat and like and share the video
too if you like to do that kind of thing
we appreciate it
okay I’m gonna start now but um
everything’s ready let’s get going okay
so let’s begin today’s lesson by talking
about setting your goals how to set
goals so I said that this is something
we talked about on the YouTube channel
recently maybe you can see it right here
this thing I’m going to talk about is
what’s called SMART goal setting so you
can see the first letter here of each
word Smar t this spells smart so this is
what’s called smart goal setting so this
is something that I think there’s a
researcher or a writer developed this I
want to say in like the 1960s or so but
this is a really great way to like
decide if your goal is a good goal or
not
hey we’ve zoomed in thank you so I’d see
a lot of your comments on the YouTube
channel and on Facebook a lot of you
right
I want to speak English fluently or I
want to speak like a native English
speaker and I understand that for sure
but the problem with that kind of goal
is that it’s not like a clear goal how
do you know when you’ve achieved that
it’s really hard to know when you’ve
achieved that right so today I want to
talk about this system and how to like
break down your big goal into smaller
goals and then we’ll talk about how to
explain that so let’s look at the first
point here first point in a SMART goal
is a specific goal it’s a specific goal
so specifically what are you going to do
so make sure that this is something that
you can explain easily is it as simple
easy to explain thing is it specific
so like speak like a native is kind of
it’s not a very specific goal really so
maybe like I want to mmm
be able to give a presentation that’s a
very specific goal right so we know you
can do it or you can’t do it and it’s
very clear specific to a situation so a
specific goal it’s specific goal okay
second one is measurable measurable so
let’s break this word down here is a
suffix suffix s tu ffix suffix means a
like a small group of letters at the end
of a word our suffix here is able so
that means possible to something we can
do we have the ability to do and here
the root of this word is hearty measure
measure so something that we can measure
something we can measure means like
maybe you can collect data about it like
you know did I achieve it or not so in
my example give a presentation it’s easy
to measure that goal did I give the
presentation yes or no or for example if
I want to study vocabulary words I can
measure how many words I study every day
so your goal should be measurable
measurable okay third this one is
attainable attainable or sometimes I
also see I think we use this on the
channel to achievable achievable so
achievable so this means we again
achieve a bilaval attainable this means
something it’s possible to achieve
something it’s possible to attain
possible to get so sometimes actually
sometimes I see comments on the channel
that are like I want to be fluent in
three months and it’s like I don’t know
how like attainable that is for a lot of
people it’s like if you want to study
for like ten hours a day every day
maybe but most people don’t have that
kind of time so it might be pretty tough
so make sure you choose a goal that’s
achievable that’s attainable you can
actually do that then you can actually
get it okay
on to the next one the next one these
are two common words that are used for
are here they are first relevant
relevant so this means like it’s
appropriate and that means it’s
appropriate for your life it fits your
life or it suits your life it makes
sense for you so if for example like
let’s use a crazy example like maybe
you’re I don’t know let’s imagine a
thirteen-year-old decides I want to give
a business presentation and maybe that’s
great
they’re a super ambitious but maybe it’s
not relevant for a 13 year olds life to
give a business presentation yet so
maybe there’s a different goal that’s
better for a 13 year old learner so
think of something that’s relevant for
you or that’s realistic realistic so
it’s something that makes sense for your
life so choose a goal that’s kind of
like reasonable as well we could use the
word reasonable here okay finally the
last one here is timely timely sorry
it’s kind of hard to see that’s a why I
have erased it sorry timely is the last
goal timely means that there’s a
reasonable period of time to achieve
that goal so if you want it like in my
example if you decide like I want to
become fluent in three months so that’s
not a very good goal because it’s not
very timely there’s not a good amount of
time to do that but it’s not very
specific you can’t measure it it’s not
achievable and it’s probably not very
realistic either so some examples of
good goals I’ll explain a couple more
later but give yourself some good goals
like I’m going to study for 15 minutes
every day or I’m going to study 10
vocabulary words every day and then in
one month I’m going to know maybe 150
new vocabulary words or I’m going to
like really master 300 new vocabulary
words every month so those are more
specific and measurable goals like we
know for sure did we achieve them or not
and we can like think about them as
being like realistic we can actually do
them so this kind of helps a lot with
motivation too like if you set goals
that are too high or you set goals that
aren’t so clear like how do you know did
I achieve it or not so this can be a
really good way to find out what did I
do it is it a good goal or not so try to
think about each item on this list for
your studies so I actually use this when
I’m making plans for things and this
really helps me even with the small
steps so like one thing that’s a problem
for me it’s like I used to think in like
really big goals but I didn’t think
about the small steps to get there so I
would recommend you use this for your
small steps as well each little step in
the process okay so this is our kind of
beginning point for today’s lesson I
hope that this is kind of a good basis
a good foundation or base to start the
year on with that I’m going to take a
break I’m going to take a break and then
we’re going to talk about some patterns
that you can use to express your goal I
already talked about a couple of them so
this week we have just regular good
old-fashioned free stuff available for
you guys you can see the banner here is
one but second we have our free PDFs for
you to download I mentioned I thought it
would be a good one for many of you the
business English and we have web came
back today so this is the business
English PDF I’ve shown this quite a few
times I think but my actually I like the
page on the back here on the back of
this page is some phrases you can use
for a business meeting so I mentioned
just now like maybe if your goal is to
do a to give sorry a business
presentation in English this could be a
really helpful set of phrases to use as
well as talking about Q&A also here are
some job titles that you can use as well
so I thought that this one would be
really good thanks I thought this one
would be really good for today’s lesson
because I know a lot of you I’ve heard
from lots of you now actually that
you’re studying English to get more
opportunities in your career so that
might be helpful for you and then I’ll
show a couple more later that I thought
would be good too but there are a lot of
these and actually there are some new
ones that I don’t have printed out I
don’t think they’re like emergency ones
and then there are some there’s actually
there’s one about your goals too there’s
one about setting goals there’s another
one about visiting the supermarket so
there’s lots of like little everyday
life things that you can find so if you
want to download these or if you want to
check all the other free PDFs that you
can download to your phone
your tablet or computer please check out
the link below the video if you’re
watching on YouTube in the description
box and if you’re watching on Facebook
please check the link above the video or
in the description above the chat if
you’re watching on Instagram please
check on youtube or on Facebook okay so
with that said I want to continue to the
next part of today’s live lesson
hello everybody if I haven’t seen you
yet and the chat thank you for joining
us and Happy New Year today we’re
talking about explaining your goals hi
there everybody lots of people saying
hello today from around the world that’s
super cool watching from Seattle hi Adam
and um Darren what is my next class for
101 I’m not exactly sure do you mean
life there’s a schedule
I’ll have to check okay um I don’t see
any question so I’m going to move on to
like some grammar patterns and some
vocabulary patterns next so if you have
questions or example sentences please
send them in the chat and of course
please don’t forget to like the video
and share the video too so that other
people studying can find it uh-oh Peter
says what does not being mean Ave um if
you saw that on my Instagram or my
facebook navigates Japanese hotpot
Japanese hotpot cook to that a couple
days ago anyway okay let’s go on to the
second part of today’s lesson the second
part is some simple patterns that you
can use to explain your goals so I used
a couple of these already to talk about
my example goals so first one this is a
more polite expression I plan to
I plan to so you finish this pattern
with a verb because here there’s a two
so this leads us to the infinitive form
of the verb so I plan to study for 15
minutes every day so if you need a verb
here a simple present tense
/ I plan to study for 15 minutes every
day
I plan to exercise 3 times a week
I plan to sleep eight hours every night
so we need a simple present tense verb
in this part of this sentence you can
make a very simple goal with this
pattern and it sounds more polite
actually this I plan to okay second one
then Oh someone wrote I plan to visit
England nice that’s a cool cool cool
okay um others yeah and if you have
other examples send them and I will try
to check them live in the chat okay next
one is I’m going to I’m going to this
one is nice it’s casual it’s easy to use
and it’s one I used it in the first part
of today’s lesson so again we use a
simple present tense verb here like I
said for example I’m going to study 15
new words every day okay so this is an
example of a smart goal I’m going to
study 15 new words every day again
simple present tense verb I have
something I can measure here 15 new
words I have a time period here as well
every day so this is a simple way to
build a goal I’m going to I’m going to
sounds less formal than I plan to
I plan to sounds a little more formal a
little more polite than I’m going to
someone are I’m going to have a healthy
breakfast now very nice very nice okay
someone says I’m going to sleep I’m
sorry that’s okay goodnight bye someone
said I plan to visit China a cool
Eduardo said I’m gonna be fluent this
year and we’re to review this part make
sure you set a specific goal fluent is
very hard to measure okay someone said I
plan to visit Mecca and Medinah
cool Jorge says I’m going to watch
Alicia’s videos for the rest of my life
to improve my English wow thank you good
luck
awesome someone said I’m going to
military service next week or I’m going
to do military service next week great
Oh lots of balls coming in this is great
you guys I’m going to live I’m going to
live in Canada Christian I’m going to
live in Canada great
hi everybody on Facebook Oh Facebook’s
lagging a little bit byes can see it on
my phone some people said I’m going to
sleep at 9 p.m. okay good I’m going to
Thailand this weekend says Leila ha that
sounds fun and warm that sounds nice
good someone says they’re going to visit
me hmm
are you sure okay great very nice goals
very nice goals okay um Andy on on D
sorry on YouTube says I’m going to watch
three videos on English class 101
intensively each week this year cool
thanks very much I hope that you enjoy
and find them useful okay great nice
example sentences everybody let’s go on
then to a much more formal expression I
want to introduce this one because I
know many of you are studying English
for work so if you want to explain a
more a plan in a more formal setting you
can use the word intend I intend to so I
intend to is more formal than I plan to
so I plan to is kind of like polite if
we imagine this is a scale
I plan to here I’m going to is here I
intend to is here intend to sounds quite
formal so I intend to improve our sales
by 10% this year for example so I intend
to sounds more formal we don’t use this
word so much in everyday conversation
because it is quite formal so if you’re
talking with your friends use I’m going
to or contract this to I’m gonna I’m
gonna I’m gonna I’m gonna study 15 new
words every day
okay next one for those of you who have
not decided just yet maybe you haven’t
decided exactly what your plan is for
the next year you can use this one I’m
thinking about so a couple points here
pronunciation point first I’m I’m don’t
forget this I’m I saw a couple of you in
the chat like I’m don’t forget your I am
and I’m thinking about and then we
usually use something like for example
I’m thinking about learning a new
language so this is a very like
uncertain sentence I’m thinking about
learning a new language so this is not a
smart goal because the person has not
decided yet but if it’s something that
you’re considering you’re thinking about
something you can use this I’m thinking
about learning a new language or I’m
thinking about getting a new job or I’m
thinking about moving to a new apartment
so this is a nice way to express
something you have not 100% decided yet
and with this one someone wrote in the
chat notice there’s no two here there’s
no - actually I’m using this ing form
the present participle form so I’m
thinking about learning a new language
I’m thinking about studying a new
subject I’m thinking about moving
something so no - in this one this is
different from these three
I plan to I intend to I’m going to okay
but no - here I’m thinking about I’m
thinking about having a relationship I
intend to improve in my life ziba I’m
thinking about learning a new language
or I’m thinking about taking new lessons
maybe
I’m thinking about beginning so lots and
lots of you are using to hear no - we do
not use - I’m thinking about present
participle learning learning ing form of
your verb I’m thinking about starting my
own channel on YouTube
nice good one on Facebook I’m thinking
about studying maybe hello I’m thinking
about traveling to Paris again no - in
this pattern No - in this pattern I’m
thinking about opening a business nice
ok I’m thinking about going back to
school
cool very nice very nice everybody I’m
thinking about reading a book ok so
here’s a good a good lesson point for
lots of you one don’t use to in this
pattern I’m thinking about learning
there’s an i ng right here so 2 points
for many of you in the chat right now
thinking about learning learning
mastering good good good good
ok um other points thinking about
studying the newspaper daily woohoo ok
Wow
there are lots of questionable example
sentences today ok let’s keep it clean
everybody ok I’m thinking about moving
to a new country great
alright looks good so those two points
there for you guys
lastly I want to I want to so again this
is for something maybe you don’t have a
plan but you just want to express a
desire for something I want to so of
course you can use this outside of your
goal setting like I want to eat dinner
now or I want to sleep now but if you’re
thinking about something and you want to
express like why do you want to do that
like I’m thinking about learning a new
language because I want to travel to a
new country I want to travel to a new
country for example so here you’ll
notice we are using two again I want to
I want
- and our simple present tense verb
again here I want to do travel country
okay good so I’ll finish that part there
take one more quick break and introduce
another PDF I wanted to share with you
let me find it
but yes keep sending your example
sentences I’ll try to check them I’m
thinking about learning all subjects
says many on Facebook wow that’s a lot
to do I’m thinking about improving my
speaking nice that’s good
excellent sounds nice okay I’m thinking
about taking private lessons good ones I
want to celebrate I want to do don’t
forget to with your I want to pattern I
want to do the celebrate good ones okay
nice someone says I want to eat macarons
that sounds like a good day right there
okay sounds like a good day to me okay
let’s take one more quick break I wanted
to introduce a missing page here okay so
I know from your feedback from those of
you who have sent comments and who have
sent audio and video to our monthly
review series I know lots of you are
studying for work and for travel so I
thought that these two PDFs would be
useful we’ll see them extra close up
over here I thought these two would be
very useful for those of you who would
like to travel more with your English so
this one is at the the expressions to
use at the airport and this one is
travel to the USA so yes on these there
are like vocabulary points on the
airport one it’s about like locations in
the airport on the first page and on the
travel one it’s about sightseeing spots
and like money expressions but again I
like the stuff that’s on the back of
these a lot so this is one this is a
part that my students wanted to practice
a lot they always felt really nervous
about this which is like talking to
immigration officers at the airport
so this is a really short but quick
reference guide to the questions that
immigration and like baggage check
people ask you so this is something I
thought would be really good for those
of you who are interested in travel and
then this other one this is this is from
the travel to the USA one on the back
here there are some questions that you
can use when you’re visiting another
country so for example do you speak
English or do you understand or I don’t
understand so there are some useful
travel points on these two PDFs travel
to the listen this says travel to the
USA but it could be travel to other
english-speaking countries as well so
you can find these from the link these
and other free PDFs from the link below
the video on youtube or above the video
on Facebook so please you can download
these for free these are free so you
need an account if you don’t have an
account you can create one for free and
download these and a lot of other things
so please check this out for sure okay
let’s continue on to the last point in
today’s lesson so the last point in
today’s lesson is about giving details
so there will be some very small points
that I hope help you explain yourself
and your goal in more detail here so as
a finish if you’re just joining yes
today’s topic is explaining goals if you
have not seen the whole video it will be
recorded so please don’t worry also
don’t forget to hit the like and share
buttons we really appreciate it ok
onward last part for today this given
your details so here I have two two
verbs
I have increase or decrease so to
increase means to go up to go up so
maybe like I want to increase the number
of vocabulary words I know or maybe I
want to decrease the amount of junk food
eight for example so maybe you have like
business goals like I want to increase
sales or I want to I don’t know like
decrease what do you want to decrease in
business what’s something bad I want to
decrease negative customer reviews for
example but a key here is actually this
preposition decrease by decrease by I
noticed lots of people miss this thing
right here this little preposition so
increase by an amount or a percent so in
my example sentence let’s use increase
for this example let’s use increase so
increase means to go up so I want to
increase and here I get to increase the
number of vocabulary words I know by 300
by 300 so this means the total number of
new vocabulary words I want to learn is
300 that’s a different way to say this
sentence so increase by 300 so like
vocabulary words increase by 300 that’s
the preposition that we use to talk
about this increase or decrease we use
the preposition by to do that you can
also use this in past tense this is
actually very commonly used in past
tense past tense is increased past tense
decreased so for example the my
vocabulary words increased by 300 in
spring or our negative reviews decreased
by 20% okay
what’s okay cool so uh that means I have
maybe extra time slightly extra time oh
okay maybe I can go a little longer
oh that’s dangerous I talk too much okay
so you can use an amount here a number
or you can use a percentage here too you
need to use a percentage here I’m sorry
and I’m like a number or a percentage
here by 20% as well isn’t it okay um
other things so if I want to ah DeRay
I hope I’m saying your name right
on Facebook says I want to increase my
income in 2019 by 10% great example
sentence on Facebook thanks very much
for that great I guess it is live hello
umm can I share this schedule including
topics for 101 do you mean the Facebook
schedule I don’t I don’t have the
Facebook schedule we have a schedule for
our live streams though so please check
the live stream event page for our
schedule okay I don’t see other example
sentences so I’m going to go to the next
point okay
the next point I have this pattern and
these are some example sentences that
show us how to use this pattern very
simple pattern it is verb with more or
less and then an object so how do we use
this
someone actually just use this one so
earn earn so earn earn is my verb here
earn means get or receive and it sounds
like we do something we work in order to
receive something so earn in this case I
have a dollar sign to K this K means
1000 1000 earned to K more money earned
to K more money so this means to K more
money this really means to K more then
last year probably so be careful again
when you’re making a
like this remember to make sure that
it’s a smart goal like we talked about
at the beginning of today’s lesson like
if I say mmm I want to study more
English it’s not a very specific goal
so earn 2 K more money like this is
pretty clear maybe you could say like
someone like the person in Facebook said
I want to earn 10% more in 2019 that’s a
very clear measurable and specific goal
so this is a simple pattern yes but make
sure that you’re setting goals that are
very clear and that you can track and
measure another example I’ve used this a
few times today
steady X where X is a number X number of
words a day so study like I said like 15
words a day so here I can I can use this
or I could use I could use what else
some of you actually wrote lessons here
so like study three lessons a week or
watch three lessons a week or watch a
movie every month read a book every
month that’s a very common goal I think
- so these are very simple but they’re
very specific and good goals like small
goals to help you move forward okay
this class is going to finish in a
couple of minutes actually I’m on my
last point but I have a little extra
time today okay last one study for 15
minutes a day so another small point
here for 4 because I have this amount of
time this length of time 15 minutes a
day study for one hour a day or study
for three hours a day if you’re a very
intensive kind of person study for 15
minutes a day don’t forget this for
though for so a lot of people again miss
these little prepositions like for and
by but you need these to correctly
explain your
progress and your plans okay I don’t see
any other example sentences yet I want
to study more English on a daily basis
basis so try to make it specific instead
of I want to study more English like
specifically what do you want to do I
want to study 10 new vocabulary words on
a daily basis
that’s a better goal so make it specific
make it instead of more which we cannot
measure make it something that you can
track I want to study for five hours a
day oh my gosh I don’t have that kind of
time if you do that’s awesome good okay
study for 20 minutes a day says Mohamed
on YouTube
nice one good I intend to get a 7 on the
IELTS exam says oh hi cool nice what
time do you start every day this is a
once a week livestream we broadcast
every Wednesday 9 p.m. Eastern Standard
Time that’s New York City time
that’s our live streaming time a couple
of you are asking that this is a once a
week livestream once a week livestream
and today we’re going a little bit late
we have a little bit of extra time today
ok other points I want to earn more
money in 2019 I think everybody does but
again make it specific specific so many
of you are giving goals that are just
more or less make it specific like how
are you going to do that what is what is
like the way you’re going to track it
how do you know did I achieve it or not
so do you want to make like $1 more than
you did in 2018 or more specifically
$2,000 more so try to be specific I
think that’s a better goal okay good
lots of you are sending really nice
really nice goals do you have tips to
improve my English yes that is our job
here at English 101 so please check out
all of the videos that we have on our
Channel
and on our Facebook page that’s our job
we’re trying to help you and trying to
give tips and grammar points and
vocabulary and study tools to help you
as you improve your English okay but
that’s everything that I have prepared
for today so I’m going to end there I
hope that this is helpful for you I hope
that you can think about this right here
as you make your goals for this year I’m
thinking about this and I hope that you
can explain your goals with these
patterns I hope that these are helpful
too so thank you very much for joining
us for this week’s lesson we are going
to be back next week next week’s lesson
is about what I say ah yes next week I
have planned a beginner grammar practice
lesson for next week so I know it’s the
beginning of the year and maybe some
people are starting to study English
again so next week I’m going to do a
beginner grammar practice lesson so I
hope that that’s good even if you are
past beginner I think I want to include
I’m going to include some kind of some
expressions that may still be useful
especially for explaining your schedule
so we’ll talk about this this will be
next week January 9th January 9th is
Wednesday Wednesday January 9th at 9
p.m. Eastern Standard Time
if you don’t sorry I had a week off so
next week if you don’t know your time in
your local city in your time zone please
google it please use your Google skills
so we’ll be back next week if you want
to make sure to catch our live stream
please hit the notification button on
youtube or on Facebook on the Facebook
event page if you click interested or
going on the event page you can get a
notification so you can catch our live
stream so please do that but I’ll finish
there for today also please don’t forget
all the free stuff that we have I showed
these in today’s lesson but there are
lots and lots of other topics for you to
study for free that you can find from
the link below the video on youtube or
above the video on Facebook so please go
download all those free things I hope
they help you with your studies
I’ll finish there for today though so
thank you so much for liking and sharing
the video and for sending your great
example sentences good luck setting your
goals for this year and I will see you
again next week enjoy your week enjoy
your weekend and take care bye
you